TM

Won't happen with this design as the syphon/clear pipes are underwater the whole time, even if the water level in the tank drops. Have a closer look at the unit, water flow up thru the sponges and over the top to get to the pipes. You only have to start the syphon once.

The two clear pipes are filled with water (syphon). As the water level rises in the front box it flows thru the two clear pipes to the back box where it gets to the same level as the front. From the rear box it flows down via pipes to the sump, which is basically another tank that can have filter media in etc. A water pump the puts the water back into the tank and the cycle continues. The overflow boxes are all rated with the rec flow rate, pump is matched to this.

I know this tank quite well, looks very tidy for its size. Lighting is good but waterflow would need a bit of work. Good price though.

notice with some of mine i would get less eggs if i left the males and females together and a lot more when i had them in different tanks for a while. Mine are at about 25 at the moment

Do you have any gear at the moment? Once you get the saltie lingo it will all make sense have a look at reefcentral.com really good site with a heap of info, also check out trade me for setups and other gear.

Not going to get ugly, everyone is just here to help and we all have different ways of doing things. Never said Saltwater was cheap, just pointing out that it doesn't have to be as dear as some people make it sound like. Whenever anyone asks how to setup a saltwater tank or questions about it the first reply is, in general, hope you have deep pockets or its going to cost you a fortune. It doesn't have to cost the earth to get a nice looking wee tank. If you have a look at the thread i posted you will see i made a lot of the gear for it, happy to go over this with anyone wanting to try.

So what would you think the cost would be to setup a 60ltr tank then???

Yes, did have one. Also built a number of setups for people, up to about 20 or so now.

We are talking about a 60ltr tank here to so costs shouldn't get that high. Can get huge on a larger tank for sure. Have a look here if you want, few prices thrown around to, some photos are gone but still a few of the setup. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt90 ... sc&start=0 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/7-vt90 ... c&start=90

Think the brand is Barnstead not sure on the supplier, global science or medbio, something like that.

Thats true if you compare fish with fish but look at total cost. Say you have a 100ltr tank You might have 4 marine fish like 2 clowns ($50 each), 1x Flame angel ($150) and a blenny ($50). 4 Asst corals ($69) Total $576 Freshwater you might have 4 Discus ($85 each) 20 Cardinals ($8 each) 6 x Albino catfish ($5 each) Total $530 So to stock a smallish tank it can be about the same as freshwater depending on what you want..

10mm is fine, most 6 footers are made from this thickness.

Our three at work all come with pumps but then they are all high end jobs.

I think it all depends on what your mains pressure is, it should say on the unit or with the paperwork somewhere. The unit with a pump may just provide the unit with the correct pressure to the unit. Do you have a header tank? At the end of the day you get what you pay for in regard to the quality of the unit and quality of water it puts out. I know one unit the lab just brought cost thousands. Is your one working?

Wouldn't say forget everything you know about freshwater and not really that much more advanced either. For sure there are some equipment differences and slightly different things to test for but other than that pretty much the same. tinytawnykitten Suggest you work out what you want to spend on it. Then look into gear Top one is the most important Skimmer - this will make or break the tank (Deltec MCE 300 or 500) Lights 2xAtinic 2xMarine white T8s, no need to go brighter for this size tank. Coral sand Coral rock Test kits CA KH first then NO3 and MG Salt Heater Couple of small pumps No need for top up systems or anything like that for a tank like this, good fitting lid you will have no problems. Have to start somewhere

I have put mine in freezer and break a bit off when i want to feed the worms.

Thats for sure the contrast between the black body and blue spots is pretty cool. Not many freshwater fish have the pop these do, more like a marine fish colour than fresh. Have a adult trio and about 30 fry now, hopefully the peat i passed on will produce a few more to...

Thats the problem, thinking of either hooking up water to the room both hot and cold and using a mixer, or a 200ltr barrel with a heater put in the night before.

The Expol stuff is a much higer density than standard poly sheets. Expol is also best used along with thick plastic on the ground under houses to limit mosture rising. Concrete helps stop mosture getting in also. Sorry don't know what you mean by fish bins... disposible cups are just that disposible and can't be compared to walls of a fishroom or under floor insulation. I have seen and worked in a number of fishrooms that have not had this done and work fine for a while but given time they become water logged. IMO wrapping with plastic really makes a difference.

Just trying to find the cheapest option to heat the room. The intial problem has been fixed so no drama there. Roughly worked out prices for different options and found fan heater to be the cheapest. May not be the most efficiant option but the most cost effective at this stage. Say there are 20 tanks in the room options could be 1x 2000w fan heater, at this stage it looks like it runs for about 4 - 6min per hour. ($29.50) 20x glass heaters at $15 - $20 each, may get away with 10 heaters ($150 - $200) 1x Heat pump 3.6kw $600 - $1200

Don't really get what you mean. Fan heater is just the same as a heat pump really, both put warm air into the room. Throwing a heater into the tanks defeats the purpose of heating the room does it not??

Yip lids on all the tanks, room doesn't feel that humid nothing is damp at this stage.

Can i suggest you wrap your poly with plastic before you attach it to the walls etc. This will stop mosture getting into the poly, once this happens the poly is useless as insultion. Any holes you make need to be taped up to. No more nails or most glues for that matter won't be any good. Screws or nails with plastci washers worked best for me. Bunnings had them, used for holding weed mat down.

That all helps. The temp of the top tanks is now 26 and air temp beside those tanks is 27. Found a good gap round the door that has been fixed now and that i think has made a big difference. Don't want to go down the track of heating tanks as the cost would be lots more than heating the room, also condensation would be really bad if tanks were heated.

I think in general the sump design is fine, the one big thing i would change is to make sure all the baffels/dividers are below the height of the tank eg tank is 400mm high make baffels 370mm high. By doing this you have stopped potential floods if one chamber gets blocked. Hope that makes sense.